Dissociation can be seen as one of the functions of our brain and the nature of thought, such as perception, thinking, or remembering.
There are 2 different ways to discuss separation: as a pathology, or as a trait. Most theorists understand this as a phenomenon when certain aspects of cognition or experience are inaccessible to consciousness and there is a pause in:
Time: ignorance of existence and current-state orientation
Real feeling: disconnecting the physical body and its sensations
Identity: disconnecting from oneself or the idea of who you are
Motivation: lack of behavior directed at the goal, involuntary motor activity
Memory: a wide variety of amnestic experiences from "Highway hypnosis" to inaccessible large portions of life memories
Emotions: loss of capacity to experience certain affects and their expression
Different Levels of Separation: We have all experienced a certain degree of isolation in our daily lives that is completely normal, as in:
Daydreaming.
Clear fantasy.
Automatic pilot activity "Active return" (in the service of the ego).
Forget the part of the trip home.
Missing parts of conversation.
Calling one number when intending to call another.
Driving in one place when planning to drive elsewhere.
Reading an entire page and not knowing what you read.
Not sure if you did something or just thought to do it.
Some other isolated experiences may be considered mild or may suggest that the brain is being trained in this way of operation:
Spinning in the mind
Thought intrusion
Task / unrelated thought or image
Internal / formed thinking
Zoning out / offline thoughts Redirected thought "blue-skying"
Symptoms and signs of severe separation may include:
Feeling disconnected from yourself and others
Sudden and unexpected mood swings - for example, excessive sadness for no reason
Memory problems that are not linked to injury or medical condition
Other cognitive (related mental) problems such as concentration problems
Important memory lapses such as forgetting important personal information
Forced to act in a certain way
Confusion of identity - for example, behavior in a way that the person is usually hurtful or disgusting.
When the separation is severe, it appears as:
Amnesia - This means memory loss; losing your memories of things that happened to you or that you did.
Depersonalization - Feeling disconnected from your body.
Derealisation - Feeling disconnected from the world around you, losing meaning of what is true and what is thought.
Identity confusion - You may not feel who you are.
Changing identity - This means that your identity may have changed. You can remember your former identity or not. Loss of emotion. Losing control of your body's movements.
Flow
To be "In the zone" or getting into a "flow" state is also considered dissociation of some people. A state of flow is a state in which a person performing an activity is completely immersed in a feeling of vigorous focus, involvement, absorption, and pleasure in the process that can make the person feel lost space and time, and forget to attend to basic physiological needs (eating, sleeping, etc.). This happens because we can only attend a certain amount of information at a time; all human attention to the state of flow is in the present work; no more attention will be allocated (Payne, 2020).
Adaptive Dissociation
Initially, isolation is adjusted, protecting us from the invincible aspects of our experiences. Isolation capacity is part of our human DNA, which is likely to appear in the service of survival as part of the way our brains are wired.
As van der Kolk (1996) states, "During a traumatic experience, isolation allows a person to observe the event as a spectator, inexperienced or limited pain or anxiety; and to be protected from full consciousness of what happened. "
Isolation can be very child-friendly to overcome immutable facts that can otherwise completely overwhelm the child’s system and lead to a functional malfunction. If the experience is embedded in the subconscious parts of the mind, the child is allowed to continue functioning in the everyday world.
The capacity for separation can be soothing during times of unpredictable stress; highly unrelated individuals reported that they found ways to spontaneously “disappear” from traumatic experiences.
Maladaptive Dissociation
An important issue in understanding separation and this potentially irreversible impact on a person’s life is whether or not the separation is under voluntary control. If the dissociation is maintained for too long or becomes automatic, it will become maladaptive.
Maladaptive dissociation is often an inflexible response to recurrent psychological trauma. A person’s lifestyle can be organized around dissociative avoidance avoiding any reminders of trauma and the dissociated ability to feel or remember. Continued avoidance of extremely painful experiences can not be incorporated and, therefore, into human life. Attachment theories view Dissociation as a maladaptive state and not as a defense against trauma.
A person who is completely isolated may lose the ability to control the transition between self-states, and the ability to remain present.
Separation and Trauma
Isolation, when associated with trauma, can be described in 3 levels:
Primary isolation involves traumatic experiences seen as isolated from the individual (e.g. experienced only as flashbacks), rather than isolated from each other (as suggested by Van der Hart et al., 1996).
A secondary separation is seen where there is a division of parts of an experience (e.g., remembering a trauma without the affecting substance).
Tertiary separation involves the formation of unique ego states. In terms of Beck's (1996) concomitant personality model, these ego states can be defined as different schema modes.
In summary, separation is a process that presents many different ways, some healthy, and some problematic. It has to do with perception and focus / attention. It can be used to forget bad events, illnesses, emotions, information, etc. It can also be used to close and disconnect the world. Depending on how much human control over it, it may be an ally or a hindrance. Control here depends on awareness and decision making.
